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eMOLT Update 2024-04-12
Weekly Recap
This week’s update is a pretty short one. George was out of the
office to spend time with family earlier this week, and on the road to a
cyberinfrastructure workshop in New Hampshire for the second half of the
week. The workshop was focused on designing computer systems to support
more real time ecological forecasting (e.g. predicting vibrio levels in
the water for the next few days, development of harmful algal blooms for
the next month, or bycatch hotspots for a particular species). The
scientists who build these types of models are in need of low-latency,
real world data like all of you provide, so it’s good to understand how
they find data to incorporate into the models and make sure that eMOLT
is available to them. It was also helpful to hear from computer
infrastructure experts from NASA, the US Geological Survey, and private
companies to hear more about how we could improve our systems.
The minilog probes will likely go into the mail next week. If we’re
successful in our MassTech application, 2024 could be the last year for
those probes. While we plan to continue mailing out sensors to long-term
participants, we’re hoping to switch you all over to the newer style
probes that record depth and record profiles every time you haul your
gear. The semi-annual newsletter that goes out with those mailings will
have more information about the switch, or you can contact George with
any questions by email or phone
(call or text 508-299-9693).
Unraveling Moana’s Mysteries
A big thanks to the team at Lowell Instruments and Linus over at CFRF
for digging into a problem in which some Moana sensors fail to download
correctly. This problem has only impacted a handful of vessels so far,
but we’ll be patching the software on all vessels over the next few
weeks to make sure it doesn’t pop up elsewhere. As you’re probably all
sick of hearing me say, science is a team sport, and we really
appreciate everyone’s contributions.
Bottom Temperature Forecasts
Northeast Coastal Ocean Forecast System (NECOFS)


Doppio Bottom Temperature Forecast

Announcements and Other News
For Massachusetts fishermen: South Fork Wind (owned by Ørsted)
announced that their eligibility application for direct compensation has
opened for commercial and recreational fishing vessels that have
experienced economic impacts from construction and/or interruptions
during operation from offshore wind vessels operating in the South Fork
Wind Project Area. PKF O’Connor Davis (PKFOD), the third-party
administrator for South Fork Wind, will be reviewing and processing
eligibility and direct compensation claims. For more info, click
here
On-demand lobster and Jonah crab gear testing is underway off
Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Science Center scientists are working
with commercial lobster vessels to test on-demand (ropeless) fishing
gear in state and federal waters normally closed to lobster and Jonah
crab fishing with static vertical lines. Testing in this area will occur
through April 30, 2024.

Because on-demand gear has no surface buoys, it won’t be visible at
the surface. To visualize the gear positions and orientations, mariners
can download and subscribe to the EdgeTech Trap Tracker app ($25) on the
Apple
or Google
Play app stores. For more information on this work, click here.
Mariners: There is a potential gear conflict area immediately west of
the Great South Channel in former Groundfish Closed Area 1. On-demand
gear in that area is set northwest to southeast in trawls approximately
1.5 nautical miles in length. If anyone accidentally tows up the
on-demand gear, don’t discard it. Hold onto the gear and contact our
Gear Research Team. Contact info can be found here.
All the best,
-George and JiM
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